Wednesday 15th May, 2013
We set off from Opononi to drive down to our next destination – Pahi. As we wound our way along the coast south of Opononi we spotted an inviting sign saying ‘Scenic Lookout’. With time on our side, and plenty of curiosity we followed it and came across the Arai te Uru Reserve with beautiful views out to sea.
We’d discovered on the previous day that New Zealand had once been covered in majestic Kauri trees and our route south took us through the heart of the Waipoua forest, home to some Kauri trees that had survived everything New Zealand’s settlers had thrown at them.
We had considered the Footprints Waipoua Twilight Encounter but despite its very high ratings we decided to save the $190 it would have cost the two of us and to visit these magnificent trees under our own steam. And I don’t think doing it ourselves lessened the awe-inspiring experience of seeing 2000 year old trees.
The Lord of the Forest (Tāne Mahuta) and the Father of the Forest (Te Matua Ngahere). The Lord is older but the Father is fatter! Between the Lord and the Father we stopped off for a walk to find the Four Sisters.
After leaving the Waipoua forest we stopped in at the Kauri Coast Top 10 Holiday Park to find out about their guided night walk in the hope of seeing some Kiwi in the wild. When we spoke to Jane, the friendly hostess, she downplayed the likelihood of seeing any Kiwi and recommended we instead visit the breeding programme in Rotorua.
That was disappointing but we drove on past Dargaville to Matakohe and the Kauri Museum. We thought the $25 each was quite expensive but having paid our money we spent a good length of time soaking up the history of the region.
It was less a museum about Kauri and more about the lives and history of the people who had settled in the area and made their living from cutting down the trees! It went into a lot of detail about the saws and engines used at the time, as well as having incredibly beautiful examples of Kauri craftsmanship.
While it showed the extent of what had been lost it was quite light on any mention of efforts to preserve one of New Zealand’s most important native species.
We left the museum at 1700 and drove on to the Palm house bed and breakfast in Pahi. Although it had a little kitchenette we hadn’t bothered to pick up any food on the way so we went out for dinner at the Cruiser Cafe and had a lovely evening with pinball and some locals.
You can see all our photos from today, as well as the rest of the photos from our trip on Flickr.
Distance travelled: 142km
Total distance travelled: 20,712km